In a brilliant but arguably overbearing bit of cross-promotion, Will Ferrell recorded some commercials for Dodge as Ron Burgundy, his beloved main character from the upcoming sequel, Anchorman: The Legend Continues. In fact, Ferrell was so good at winging it with his ridiculous Burgundy banter, that he recorded 70 different ads for the car company. And instead of combining some of them or simply cutting the least funny videos of the bunch from the rotation, Dodge decided to run with all 70 of them. So far, we’ve only seen nine on TV, but apparently they’re working quite well.
According to Ad Age, once the ads debuted, web interest in the Dodge Durango immediately spiked and sales followed soon after. All because of the fictitious newsman from the Whale’s Vagina.
Sales of the re-engineered Durango climbed 59% in October to 5,120 units and are up 50% for the year. Edmunds.com analyst Michelle Krebs said shopping for the Durango “soared on Edmunds.com after the ads launched” on Oct. 5.
Dodge brand boss Tim Kuniskis said: “We’ve seen almost an 80 percent increase in Web traffic alone since the campaign launched.”
Mr. Kuniskis said: “Durango sales have been very strong this year, and the Ron Burgundy Durango ads are absolutely building on that momentum.” (Via Ad Age)
Of course, as we all know, one character’s incredible success only means that we can plan to soon see other characters spouting their catchphrases ad nauseam, and my money will be on Derek Zoolander for Volkswagen circa late 2014.